Virginia's Past in Portraiture; Wm. and Mary Qrtly., Vol. 2, No. 2; 1893 Transcribed by Kathy Merrill for the USGenWeb Archives Special Collections Project ************************************************************************ USGENWEB ARCHIVES NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. http://www.usgwarchives.net *********************************************************************** Virginia's Past in Portraiture R. A. Brock William and Mary College Quarterly Historical Papers, Vol. 2, No. 2. (Oct., 1893), p. 121. VIRGINIA'S PAST IN PORTRAITURE. BY R. A. BROCK. William Byrd, the 2nd, wrote Dec. 2, 1735, to Col. and act'g Gov. Alex. Spotswood as follows: "The person who has the honor to wait upon you with this letter is a man of a Good Family, but either by the power of Fortune, or his own mismanagement, is obliged to seek his Bread a little of the latest in a Strange Land. His name is Bridges and his Profession Painting, and, if you have any employment for him that way he will be proud of obeying your Commands. He has drawn my children and several others in this neighborhood, and tho' he has not the masterly hand of a Lely or Kneller, yet had he lived so long ago, as when Places were given to the most deserving, he might have pretended to be Serjeant Painter of Virginia". Dr. R. C. M. Page, in his "Page Family", gives several portraits as having been painted by Bridges, and it is highly probable that the portraits of Gov. Spotswood and his wife were also painted by him. Who was Taylor of Cartersville, Cumberland County, who, I am told, painted many portraits at the close of the last and the beginning of the present century of the Mayo, Carington, and probably of the Randolph and Harrison families?